Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The Secrets of Amalthia

Amalthea is pretty much a mystery to me. And yet, it provides one of the best untapped source of adventure ideas that I have run across in a long time. The mystery of why people feel compelled to stay and just what is locked away in the University is one that I have played with several times in my fertile imagination, and here are two ideas I have come up with.

1) When Amalthea was threatened with destruction during the Divine War, the refugees hiding in the University used dark magic, perhaps even an artifact of some kind, to make a pact with dark powers. In exchange for saving their lives, they would serve whatever dark power they enjoined and their decendants would be bound by the same pact. However, their patron has a very liberal definition of decendants and so anyone who stays in the city for any length of time become bound by the pact. The people are compelled by their patron to keep their worship a secret and outwardly they show reverance to Denev.

2) The University houses several very powerful titanic artifacts that could change the balance of power if they fell into the wrong hands. As a result Denev had the Gods place a divine Geas over the city compelling people who come there to stay and strengthen the city's defenses. Should the city ever be overwhelmed, as during the Divine War and the Druid War, Corean and Chardun have tasked a legion of angels and a legion of devils to defend the city. For the two and their followers to willingly work together to keep the city from falling shows just how dangerous the artifacts are.